Dandies Marshmallows + Brownies + Butterscotch Chips =

a birthday greeting for my friend Joanna, the super fly author of Yellow Rose Recipes. It's also the first culmination of my WHAT TO DO WITH A BAG OF DANDIES? post from last week.

Joanna and I met with friends from the PPK at the Bye & Bye last night (omg! Celine, Joni, Kim and Alin are in town!) for cocktails, Floor Punches, grub and conversation - and as Maeve and I were leaving for a Yelp Elite event, in walks Julie Hasson and her husband Jay with two pies!

Julie pretended to force me to take a bite of the banana creme, I did, I could rave about that wonderful dessert for an hour and a half, and what was my original point?

Happy Birthday Joanna!!!!

Smorey Butterscotch Brownies

They are admittedly thin because I used a slightly larger sized pan than the recipe called for. The original recipe is for Espresso Brownies that will be in next year's Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar by Isa Chandra Moskowtiz and Terry Hope Romero.

I added vegan butterscotch chips (from Pandacookie!!), a few halved Dandies vegan marshmallows before baking, and a bunch on top during the last few minutes of oven time. It fluffed up! Then it fluffed down. And then they were nibbled. There was still some of the desired gooeyness on top - yeah, Dandies rule.

Here's the BBQ platter Maeve and I shared at the Bye & Bye, my favorite dish on the menu. It's $1 off during happy hour. FYI, they've gladly swapped the collards for brussels before, if you're into that sort of thing!

I Love Joanna Caeser Salad with Tempeh Croutons

Joanna's Caeser Salad with Tempeh Croutons

You don't see a lot of salads on this site, but I do eat them.  You know how it is - they've been a way of life since I was ten and ordering salads at chains with a side of ranch dressing and thinking croutons were great stuff while my sister ordered chicken strips.  

Come late spring and summer, when I shop exclusively for produce at the farmers markets, I find myself making a lot of simple and boring ones at home.  Sorry, it's true.  These days I order salads by default when dining with my office at restaurants with limited options, and while I typically choose to take Portland restaurants up on dishes that don't bore me, I'll give a shout out to the Caeser salad with Tempeh Bacon at Hungry Tiger Too as a salad I dig.

Therefore, when the incredible Joanna Vaught of Yellow Rose Recipes shared her new recipe for Caeser Salad with Tempeh Croutons, I thought, "Hell yes", "I love Joanna" and "I need to buy tempeh"!  It's going to be in her upcoming cookbook sequel, so stay tuned to her website for more on that.  Joanna posts about her cooking projects, life and comical and informative lists of tips featuring smart grocery shopping and seitan troubleshooting.  Her seitanic post includes a recipe for chicken seitan cutlets and if you've ever doubted your seitan making abilities or have yet to make it - read it!  There are only so many food blogs I can handle, and this is one I make sure to follow*.

Tempeh Croutons!!

Leftover Tempeh Croutons on Teese'd Pizza

with cherry tomatoes, kale raab, maittake mushrooms, garlic, kalamata olives and homemade marinara.

Last night I went to Paradox Cafe for a dinner meeting and ordered a hot salad with tofu.  Okay, #2 with tofu, which is really a stir fry with tossed with seasoned potatoes.  Wholesome.

*Disclaimer:  Fine, I'll out myself as being actual friends with Joanna Vaught, on and off the internet. Not to boast too much, but earlier today we exchanged emails about last night's episode of LOST that included multiple exclamation points, questions marks and my repeated love and respect for Mr. Linus and her squealing over the previews for next week.  She rules, and so does the Caeser!  A non-boring salad I'd make again, for sure.

This weekend in Portland..

The point of this post is certainly not to get people to move to Portland, but I understand that it may be hard to resist, with the new vegan Mini Mall and all.
On Sunday, I went to the grand opening party for Sweetpea Bakery and Cafe, Food Fight! Grocery, Herbivore Store and Scapegoat Tattoo. I was too beat to stay around for the music at 6pm, but I spent 2-5pmish chatting with friends, spending time in the stores, and sampling greatness, which included dishes from my friend Joanna's Yellow Rose Recipes at Herbivore. I was honored to make her Spice Cake for the event (with help from Maeve and Caitlin).

Giganto oatmeal cream pie from Sweetpea. If only these came in mini sizes, I'd be in sweet heaven.

YRR Spice Cake, dusted with cinnamon

YRR Roasted Red Pepper Hummus

More YRR tasting. The book is gorgeous! (as is the mini mall).

My friends ordered these cuppers from Sweetpea.

The oatmeal cream pie and a cookies and cream cupcake.
And more greatness about Sweetpea - there are 5 or 6 different types of vegan cheeses - featuring bacon and scallion, roasted garlic and rosemary, chipotle and strawberry !!
I have yet to try them, but be certain I will.

And later than night, post-mini mall sampling (Taqueria Los Gorditos and Blossoming Lotus were two of the vendors giving out free samples, including soft serve, at Food Fight...) I made a half batch of Chickpea Noodle Soup from Veganomicon.

I only made this once during testing, but it's so easy that I should again. I ate most of the noodles from the bowls I've had in the past 2 days, and brought some more noodles to cook in the leftovers when I eat it for lunch today.
I also want to saute some tofu or seitan and throw it in during a future batch.

More make-shift minestrone leftovers from last week.

Taco night. I made breakfast chorizo from tvp and soy curls from VWAV since I had some leftover taco shells hanging around, and half an avocado to smush. No salsa, but we had hot sauce and field greens. Nothing great, but good enough for a quick meal.
Breakfast chorizo is very versatile, easy to spice to liking, also easy to cut fat in, and keeps well.

And low and behold, look what I came across at Trader Joe's this weekend - Organic Blue Agave! This 11.75 oz bottle was 2.99. I keep meaning to restock, since I've been out for months, but keep forgetting. I usually buy the cheapest in bulk from People's Coop - but that's light, and I prefer darker, so this was a nice chance to try something new.
I used it to make Veganomicon Backyard BBQ sauce last night instead of sugar - yum.